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Conservative strategists eye early nominations for incumbent MPs

Dmitri Soudas, executive director of the Conservative Party of Canada, is one of the strategists named in a memo to Prime Minister Stephen Harper advising
open nomination contests “as soon as possible” for incumbent MPs who don’t expect challenges. (THE CANADIAN PRESS file photo)

OTTAWA—Conservative Party strategists are working to help incumbent MPs secure their nominations well before the next election despite a declaration that all 338 riding contests will be open.

A memo marked “secret” to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, obtained by the Star, proposes to open nomination contests “as soon as possible” for incumbent MPs who don’t expect challenges, nearly 19 months before the next federal election.

Dimitri Soudas, the party executive director, and Fred DeLorey, the director of political operations, advise they want to “wrap up all of the incumbents by early fall 2014.”

“We will work with these incumbents on the timing and if an unexpected challenge arises we will work with your office and the Whip’s office to ensure adequate time (away) from Parliament Hill be given so they can focus on their nominations.”

The memo says 130 sitting MPs indicate they plan to run again, 11 will not, and 16 are “unsure.” Soudas and DeLorey say cabinet minister Jason Kenney is the only one who didn’t make his intentions known to them.

The party brass wants to move to open nominations immediately in 13 ridings, starting Feb. 27.

The memo, dated Feb. 3, urges Harper to approve the early timelines. Once nomination contests open, the typical one takes six weeks, but candidates have only the first three weeks to sign up party members. So timing is the key to success.

The memo, which was sent anonymously to the Star among other documents, was cc’d to several of Harper’s top aides, party president John Walsh and top fundraiser Sen. Irving Gerstein ahead of a meeting of the party’s national council last weekend in Toronto.

According to the minutes of a Jan. 21 meeting of regional party organizers, Soudas is quoted as saying: “Everything we do is part of the strategy to ensure we win in 2015 with another majority government.”

The party has declined to comment on the documents. It has requested through lawyers that they be returned.

However, in an interview with the Star, DeLorey denied the party will try to protect anyone from a challenge.

“The Conservative Party of Canada will conduct fair and open nominations and any member who wants to contest a nomination will have that right,” he said.

The Conservatives have said incumbents wouldn’t end up fighting each other in newly created ridings, but also that there would be no formal protections from challenges, unlike the years when they held a minority government and elections were more unpredictable.

However, the memo says that in ridings where sitting MPs face a challenge for their seat, “we will open their nominations on a case-by-case basis based on my conversations with them and based on whether we believe they are ready or not in order for them to win their nomination.”

Soudas and DeLorey tell Harper about the 13 nomination races that should get an immediate green light: “This is the first batch that has requested to have their nominations held ASAP, including Rob Anders who believes he can win if we open now.”

Anders is the controversial longtime MP who faces at least two challengers to secure the newly redrawn riding of Calgary Signal Hill. The challengers are Ron Liepert, a former Alberta Progressive Conservative cabinet minister who also managed Alison Redford’s failed bid in 2004 to unseat Anders, and Dan Morrison, a past president of Anders’ riding association.

In an interview with the Star, Liepert said the machinations are “deplorable.”

“I find it frankly deplorable but typical of the way this individual (Anders) operates: run to the party with your tail between your legs, hoping to get a quick nomination before anybody pays attention and slide in again.”

“If the party is willing to accommodate him I can assure you the current member of Parliament is in for a rude awakening because we are ready to go,” Liepert said. “I think he’s going to be very surprised if he tries to sneak one by the residents of this part of the city.

The electoral map has been redrawn for the next election due to population growth, with 30 new ridings created. It means many sitting MPs in Ontario, B.C. and Alberta will find themselves competing within different electoral boundaries.

In ridings which are not now held by a Conservative but look promising, or where an incumbent MP is stepping aside, the party’s top strategists say they will “wait until we are convinced we have at least one strong candidate before we open the nomination.”

The Conservatives don’t propose to waste time and resources on ridings where their prospects are dim. “For electoral districts in which we have no hope of winning in the next election we will hold off on opening until 2015.”

The memo gives a nod to “ensure fairness” for possible challengers of incumbents, saying it will cut off access to the Conservative Party’s computerized voter and membership identification database “the day we open the nomination in a given riding.”

Two Conservative-held ridings in Alberta are to be filled in byelections long before the next federal election, but the party has not yet identified a candidate for Fort McMurray-Athabasca, recently vacated by MP Brian Jean.

One of the documents obtained by the Star identified Fort McMurray Mayor Melissa Burke as a potentially winning candidate for the party.

Burke told the Star in an interview that only one person tied to the federal Conservative party — Brian Jean himself — has approached her so far to consider running.

As “wonderful” as the suggestion is, she says she will not run federally. “A definite no,” she said.

Asked whether a Conservative candidate would have a lock on the seat, Burke said the area has undergone rapid growth and change and is “not as much as true blue” as it was a number of years ago.

“The door is as open to change here as anywhere else,” she said, and it will largely come down to the quality of candidate the parties propose.

Proposed Conservative nominations to open on Feb. 27, 2014 for October 2015 election:

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